


Beyond All Limits!

by ekrolo2



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon: Dragon Ball Super (Anime & Manga), F/M, Movie: Dragon Ball Super: Broly, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26680402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ekrolo2/pseuds/ekrolo2
Summary: What if Goku held his ground and decided to continue fighting Broly one on one instead of escaping and choosing fusion? A violent, fierce fight between the strongest Saiyans ascends to new heights!
Relationships: Bulma Briefs/Vegeta
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

The power that exploded from Broly was as crazy as it was gargantuan. Even standing a ways away, Goku felt the overwhelming force of it blast in his face as though they were just inches away. The ball of green ki expanded closer and closer until it burst, shooting up into the sky in a massive pillar of raw, angry power. The wind burst and howled, sending huge chunks of the cracked ground flying away. Inside the ki, Broly screamed on and on, his sense of reason vanishing or already gone. 

There was no doubt about it, Broly was reaching into the strength of a Super Saiyan. But not an ordinary one, Goku remembered the first time he tapped into it on Namek all those years ago. It was like comparing an ant to a mountain. Holding his ground against the outburst, Goku put his right arm and leg forward into a fighting stance and looked inside the ki storm. Once Broly floated back up, it spiked all over again, turning into a thick, pulsating ball of pure ki. It shrank then expanded out, changing the colors of their surroundings into a bizarre mix of purples and blues. 

"Yes!" He heard Freeza scream from far away, his smug voice clear despite the windstorm. "I succeeded!"

Goku glanced at his direction for a second, giving Freeza a nasty look his old opponent probably didn't even see. He smelled something fishy about Broly's dad getting killed all of a sudden, with the two of them fighting away from them the whole time. This just proved it: Freeza killed Paragus to make Broly power-up once he lost the edge in the fight. He might've seemed like a bad guy, but Broly didn't, and Goku couldn't help but feel sorry for both of them getting played like this. 

Not that it changed much, really, Goku still had the fight to win. It just became a whole lot more terrifying and exciting. The fingers in his hands twitched from anticipation, sweat covered him from head to toe. Even just being close to Broly was making it hard to breathe. For a second, Goku considered falling back or running away outright. There was no chance he could win with the power he had right now. But he also knew something else, that if Broly's power kept rising and Goku's limits were pushed far enough, he could get the strength to win. Not just that, but to practice something he'd been after ever since the Tournament of Power.

Inside the ki ball, Broly let out another grating scream. With his blank eyes, he growled and looked at Goku. Goku stared back without flinching whatsoever. He even smirked a little. The big guy knew a challenge when he saw one and sure enough, roared again. His orb of ki grew thicker, changing the colors of their surroundings all over again. Goku's posture tensed in anticipation for the attack to come, the power of Super Saiyan Blue flared all around him to its maximum strength. 

Broly howled again and from the ball shot out hundreds, thousands of frighteningly powerful ki blasts in every possible direction. The ground exploded and shook with each impact. For all the force behind them, Broly's anger and lack of control made the attack much less than what it could have been. For every few blasts that came directly at Goku, forcing him to knock them aside with a flurry of quick chops, most of the rest missed completely. Still, even the relatively small number of ones to get to their target were both fast and forceful enough to make Goku's entire body shake after every chop.

Broly quit firing them soon after, roaring and flying forward with the massive ki ball still surrounding him. Everything in its way was swallowed up and destroyed into nothing. Miles and miles of broken ground and half-melted snow and lava were just gone. Goku stood his ground, gauging the force behind it even as the distance shortened with every second. He focused on every bit of ki running through the length of his body. The process easy and quick thanks to the perfect ki control of Super Saiyan Blue. Once the ball was just moments away from crashing into him, Goku blasted off the ground and high into the sky. 

"Kaio-ken... Times..." He muttered, already feeling his body and ki flare up for the imminent burst of power. Broly chased him after him, shouting and leaving behind the ki ball. Goku let his opponent close the distance, fly wildly until the last possible moment. Once Broly was just a few feet away, he struck. "Ten!!"

Spinning in mid-air with the new rush of ki, Goku effortlessly avoided Broly's punch and positioned him just above the gargantuan Saiyan. With all of his built up momentum, Goku's right leg shot outward and hit Broly upside the head, propelling him all the way back into his own ki ball. The impact was like a spark in a powder keg, swallowing most of the ground in a fiery explosion. It barely lasted a few fractions of a second before another billowing outburst of ki from Broly scattered it into all directions. In even less time, he'd reached Goku, who only barely managed to put his arms up in the last moment defense. The backhand sent a flash of pain running through Goku's whole body, propelling him backward through the sky. 

"A-Amazin'!" Goku grunted, smiling despite the ache running through his limbs to the rest of his body. "I didn't even slow em down!"

He soon realized how much of an understatement this was. Broly's following attacks only intensified in speed and power. Goku tried to keep things even, answering every blow with one of his own. Soon enough, it became impossible. Broly's erratic fighting style, or the complete lack of one, made it difficult just to keep track of blocking and dodging. Very quickly, Goku resorted to a times twenty multiplier increase just to keep himself from being completely overwhelmed.

From the sidelines, Bulma watched the battle, to the best of her ability. The two Saiyan's duking it out looked more like a pair of lights, dots, and streaks smashing against one another in the sky. One red and blue, the other green. She knew things had taken a turn for the worse when Broly's light show began minutes ago, turning the burnt-out north pole into a total, fiery hellscape. The fact Broly seemed to press Goku back, pounding away at him, winning, validated her worry.

"What're you waiting for?!" Bulma turned to her husband, staring at the fight with that annoying, arms crossed too cool to care look. "Go and help him! This isn't the time for your Saiyan fighting maniac crap!!"

"That fool's made his choice," Vegeta actually had the nerve to scoff at her. "He knows he can't beat Broly, not like this, the fact he's trying to do it anyway clues me in on his little scheme."

"Hmph, or maybe you're just scared to jump in yourself."

"W-What did you say?!" Vegeta snapped, all of his cool vanishing in an instant. She knew it wasn't just wounded ego ticking him off. The faint blush of embarrassment proved she was right. "Now listen here, I-"

"While his fear is perfectly understandable, given the circumstances," Whis said, smiling in that knowing way of his while Vegeta growled and seethed. "Goku's plan is not entirely without merit. Broly's rising power just may soon reach the necessary level to bring Ultra Instinct out again."

"... That thing from the Tournament...?" Bulma had badgered them incessantly about what happened in that strange, other dimension the second they returned. From everyone's account, Goku, unsurprisingly, got himself into a giant mess with the king of all meatheads, Jiren, and walked out of it with another power. Some new transformation so strong it could punch even Beerus' lights out. "Wait a second... Didn't he nearly kill himself getting it last time?!"

"Oh yes," Whis replied as though it were nothing at all. "Though, only the first time. I suspect it won't take such drastic events to bring it out again, probably."

"... Probably he says...."

Miles away from the safety of their cliff, Goku felt a trickle of blood trail down just above his eye where Broly struck him. Another among many cuts and bruises he'd gotten across his whole body during their increasingly one-sided match. Counter attacking or attacking at all was impossible. Broly was either too fast or resistant to whatever ordinary hits Goku could send his way. There was no time to try a ki blast. The giant Saiyan was always on him, clawing, snarling, and pounding away. Even keeping the Kaio-ken times twenty active was beginning to make Goku's insides feel like someone was cooking them.

What he didn't feel was the power of Ultra Instinct building up. Despite Broly's power already well surpassing most of the competitors at the Tournament of Power, and Goku's own body approaching its absolute limits, it wasn't coming out. Either Broly wasn't strong enough to trigger it yet, or Goku needed to push harder still.

"Well... I knew it wouldn't be easy!!" Gritting his teeth through the endless attack string, Goku managed to concentrate enough ki to teleport himself away from Broly and several miles away to ground level. The giant Saiyan hit empty air and hung there for a while, staring and snarling at nothing. 

Goku took a second to check his surroundings, keeping his guard up to prevent Freeza from trying any more funny business. Then, he took a deep, long breathe, easing some of the pain and tension away from his body. Given what he was about to do it, it was the last bit of easy-going it would have for a while. The fiery sensation from the Kaio-ken came back, stronger than before, and possibly stronger than Goku had ever felt it. This alone was a massive risk, a gamble that might blow him up before Ultra Instinct even came back. But if he was going to beat Broly, and more importantly, himself, it had to be done.

Goku's ki flared back up, sending a ripple of force through the ground and air. Broly noticed it right away and snarled, charging at him. Every vein in his body seemed to bulge and pop, every tired muscle ached, and thick vapors of steam came with every breath. Immediately, he knew trying to keep this much energy inside would blow him, even as part of a burst. It needed to be fired out. And so Goku positioned himself just for that, aiming his impending Kamehameha at a forty-five-degree angle, straight at Broly's trajectory.

"Kaio... Ken...." The mostly red ki blast with a blue center began to form around his cupped hands. Broly's roar grew louder and louder, acutely felt by Goku's drastically empowered sense of hearing. He let the furious Saiyan come closer, to maximize the potency of the blast and to give his straining body enough wind-up time. "Times... Fifty...."

Once they were a hundred a fifty feet apart, Goku opened fire. "KamehameHHHHAAAA!!"

The force of the blast was so strong he was very nearly flung back through the ground by it. The rush of forcefully amplified ki came roaring out of him in an almost blinding release of power. More importantly, it was working on Broly. The big guy was so taken aback by the massive rush of energy suddenly fired right at him, he found himself blasted face-first hundreds of feet back into the air. Goku didn't let himself get fooled by this to hope for a sudden victory.

If the power of the blast vastly surpassed and overwhelmed Broly's own, he would already be beaten to a pulp or dead. Instead, the Kamehameha was soon enough halted by him. Broly, snarling louder than ever before, pushed it back with his bare hands, forcing even more of his hidden power out to overtake it. Another fiery aura of green ki surrounded him and slowly began to propel him back down. 

Goku would've stopped to praise him if he wasn't so singularly focused on winning the tug of war. He didn't think about the risks of the Kaio-ken, or what Broly would do to him when the distance inevitably closed. He ignored the aches of his beaten, bloody body, the nerves that were on fire, the teeth hurting from the way he clenched them. Just keep pushing back, and whatever happened, happened.

Broly's advance continued and then stopped at a distance of sixty feet between them. By now, the clash of their powers was of such magnitude and close proximity, the entire area violently shook. Bulma held close to Vegeta, who looked at the flashing collision of red and green with a curled lip. Whis watched it all happen with the same knowing, unworried smile. 

Freeza gleefully took it all in with a keen, predatory eye. His plan, with a setback or two, had progressed wonderfully. Before Broly even touched down on his ship, he'd sensed the hidden potential within the Saiyan. A power so very similar to the wild girl Kale, yet much more unfathomably stronger. Waiting for the proper spark to ignite it into a perfect weapon for the one true overlord of the universe. Even the faint regret Freeza himself wouldn't annihilate Goku or Vegeta this time wasn't enough to ruin the sheer spectacle of witnessing it in such spectacular fashion.

As for the two Saiyans, their deadlock persisted, each new moment in their contest of power causing another quake, explosion of wind, or outburst of ki. Broly's voice thundered with a harrowing echo, his power propelling him toward his enemy with an unceasing, single-minded obsession. It was fought back by Goku's own focused determination, pushing his exhausted body and stamina reserves to the absolute limits of their limit. It didn't waver or stop even when Broly steadily flew closer and closer, even when every fiber of his body was screaming in silent agony.

Goku simply soldiered on, letting the Kamehameha perpetually fire. The closer Broly got, the more determined he became. Foot by foot, the wild Super Saiyan's power overcame the ki blast, growing larger until Goku was left pressing back a gargantuan ball of energy just five feet away. His hands shook, his knees were frozen stiff, and his stamina reached the last shreds it had left. Until inevitably, it all backfired.

Without warning, Goku's Kaio-ken cased. His Kamehameha fizzled away to nothing, leaving him standing there, frozen in place. A sudden hollow feeling washed over his entire body, a strange numbness where his body should've gone limp and collapsed to the ground yet stayed upright. He became more aware of everything around him, seeing Broly's oncoming attack in slow, agonizing detail. In a scant few fractions of a moment, he closed the final distance and, with all his built up power, smashed in Goku's direction with a pair of massive, raised fists. 

A pillar of green ki rose hundreds of feet into the sky before contorting and bursting out into a mushroom cloud-shaped explosion. In every direction, the force expanded into a massive, circular whirlwind followed by thick, searing firestorms. Bulma held onto to Vegeta, who shielded her with his body, she tried to scream, but the wind drowned her out. Whis stood still, smiling on as though nothing were wrong.

Closer to the battlefield, Freeza raised a barrier around his whole body, exerting a considerable amount of will power to keep himself from being devoured by the fires. Yet even as he grit his teeth, he smiled and peered through to the epicenter of the explosion. Inside, raging on and growing even more powerful was Broly. Soon enough, another outburst of energy came rushing from him, unleashing a force wave so powerful it swept the firestorms into nothingness. Next to him was nothing at all, not even a corpse. Nor could Freeza sense particularly loathsome energy there or anywhere else on the planet.

The thought was so unbelievable, Freeza refused to accept it outright. For many agonizing moments, he focused on finding him. Some trail or sign that the most loathsome Saiyan to ever disgust the ruler of the universe had survived and scurried off somewhere. There was nothing in their immediate vicinity or anywhere else on the planet and beyond as far as Freeza's perceptions could tell. He had seemingly done it, Broly had succeeded in destroying Goku.

As tempting as it was to simply accept this and bask in the laughter threatening to overtake him, Freeza didn't. No, Goku was a monkey of a different kind from the rest. Particularly troublesome to kill, even when all common sense showed that he was. No, there was more to this than met the eye. Freeza could feel it in his bones. A worrisome notion that didn't trouble Broly in the least, on and on, he raged and roared, pounding his chest and unleashing further bursts of energy. It was the perfect opportunity for someone, say a sneaky Earth raised simian to strike and win the battle. 

"No, this isn't over, not even by a slim margin," Freeza muttered, whipping the cracked ground with his tail. Before he could fly over and try to warn Broly, something powerful stepped on his tail, sending a wave of pain through his whole body. Freeza only barely kept himself from shrieking, biting his tongue. "Y-You! I knew you weren't dead!!"

Snapping his head to look over his shoulder, Freeza scowled and gritted his teeth at Goku pressing down on his tail. He was battered and bruised, with well over a dozen bloody spots covering the length of his exposed upper body. His stance was slouched, giving off the false impression he was vulnerable, weakened. Yet that glow surrounding him, and those silver eyes were proof no such thing was accurate.

"Yer almost right," He spoke in a calm, deep voice, twisting the heel of his boot against the end of Freeza's tail, eliciting a pained groan. "Even with Ultra Instinct turned on, I'm in pretty bad shape. So why don't ya do me a favor an keep Broly busy fer a little while."

"What makes you think I would do any such thingAAAAAHHHHH!" Another sharp twist of Goku's heel cut through Freeza like a knife, releasing a building up shriek of sheer pain to explode from his throat. Then, Goku let go of the limb and kicked Freeza across the chin, propelling him for hundreds of miles across the battlefield. The force of the blow was so powerful, Freeza could swear there were stars and black spots building in the pits of his eyes.

Then, a fresh wave of pain from the top of his head took over, and he smacked down into the ground most ungraciously. His face was buried in burning, cracked gravel.

"Worthless Saiyan scum," He growled, forcing himself back up. "I'll make him- Oh, oh, dear...."

Once his eyesight had cleared up, Freeza realized it was Broly who he smacked into it. Craning his neck to gaze at the Saiyan's face, the ruler of the universe found a visage of absolute, bottomless, and seething anger in that pair of blank, white eyes staring down at him. Suddenly, Freeza felt quite acutely vulnerable and began to slowly and steadily walk backward in the opposite direction. 

"N-Now, wait just a moment!" Freeza raised his hands, feeling his lips go dry. "D-Do not strike me, do you understand! I am lord Freeza, the commander of your later Father, and I will suffer no-"

A moment later, Freeza suffered the first of many blows to come. Whis, Vegeta, and Bulma observed the beatdown from the cliffside. Each punch and kick send a new quake to ripple through the ground, Broly's shouts were only matched by Freeza's agonized cries of pain.

"W-Wow," Bulma muttered, actually finding herself cringe from every new cry. "He's really giving it to him..."

"Hmph, it's no less than he deserves."

"But wait," She snapped her head in every direction, wishing she had a pair of binoculars or something to get a better look at what was going on down there. "Goku smacked him into Broly, right? So, where is he? Why isn't he fighting them himself?"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Whis' smile widened. So enigmatic, it ticked Bulma off and made her want to smack him until he spilled his guts. "He's merely taken a short break to... Compose himself for the next round, I expect he'll rejoin us very, very soon."


	2. Chapter 2

The sensation of Dende's healing magic was eerily similar to eating a Senzu, although not as quick. Firstly, there was a sudden, warm, and welcoming feeling of relief washing over Goku's entire body, dulling the immediate sensations of pain through the length of it. The bleeding cuts and bruises, visible on his exposed upper body and hidden by leftover clothing, vanished into nothingness. Bent and broken bones were restored to their old selves. Lastly, the scorching burnout of the Kaio-ken dimmed, lessened, and finally stopped.

By the time the brief spell did its job, Goku was able to stand up straight without something in his back creaking, and breathe without his throat throbbing. Standing there in the Lookout with Dende and Mister Popo, he clenched and unclenched his hands, staring intently at them. After kicking Freeza to a large and angry curb, Goku teleported over to them. He'd hoped to get a Senzu, but with none around, Dende's healing abilities were the next best thing. He didn't feel overly bad about getting a second wind. Broly got two of those. This was just evening out the odds.

"Is uh, everything alright, Goku?"

"Hm? Oh yeah," He replied, giving himself a look over. "It's just, I usually get pretty beaten up by the time Ultra Instinct kicks in. Haven't ever felt this rested with it."

He suddenly punched the air, once, twice thrice, then hundreds of times, followed by an equally swift kicking sequence. Jumping and somersaulting across the length of the Lookout, Goku continued practicing his attacks in increasingly elaborate motions.

In the Tournament of Power, what with opponents everywhere and the clock ticking down, it was impossible to just stop and enjoy Ultra Instinct like this. Even for the briefest time. The fluidity of motion, the way many of his moves exerted just the right amount of ki necessary.

But not all of them, his attacks lacked the precision, speed, and distinctiveness of the real Ultra Instinct. Goku had to make his attacks happen through thought. Not his body, knowing where and what to do independent of him. Disappointingly, his clash with Broly had only brought him a part of the way into the state. Shortly after, Goku landed back to where Dende and Mister Popo stood, studying his closed, right fist.

"I got some of Ultra Instinct back, but not everythin'."

"C-Can you win with just that?" Dende asked, gulping and sweating drops as big as rocks. "Th-This Broly's his powers incredible, and he's not getting any weaker!"

"He's a tough one, but I'll manage," Goku cooly assured the God of Earth, sensing the battle between him and Freeza all the way back to the North Pole. Although, given what he felt, calling it a fight wasn't actually right. "Thanks, fer helping me out, Dende, I owe ya one."

"Oh, its nothing at all," He gave a shaky laugh, still intimidated by Goku's appearance. "Just please, stop this chaos before its too late."

"Don't worry, round two'll be the last."

His surroundings altered drastically once his instantaneous teleportation brought him back to the north pole. The sunny, clear sky above the Lookout was replaced by a red one with thick black and brown clouds plotting everything out. If there was any ice left, all the lava they had punched and blasted up to the surface would've incinerated it by then. Even the air was unpleasant. Looking off to the distance, Goku noticed Bulma, Whis, and Vegeta still hanging around. Tossing Freeza over to Broly worked out, keeping the big guy occupied instead of gunning for his friends.

Speaking of Freeza, he suddenly came flying through the far side of a nearby, crumbling mountain. To most people, he'd be little more than a white blur of motion in the air. Goku saw him clearly, however, and it wasn't a pretty sight. During his short absence, Freeza had already lost the bottom chunk of his tail. His usually white body covered in black, blue, and bloody purple cuts and bruises all over. When he finally slammed into a nearby wall, he slumped against it, groaning weakly, barely conscious. Goku only wasted one more thought on him, thinking about how he deserved the punishment before turning over to Broly.

In a mad rush, the big guy burst through the mountain, leveling it in his wake, stopping when he noticed Goku standing on the battlefield. From the way his blank eyes widened, and his mouth hung agape, it was clear some sense was left even in Broly's rageful mind. Not that it lasted long. Now his attention was fixed entirely on his returning opponent.

 _Alright, time t'test this out._ Arms hanging loosely, Goku stood tall and observed the way Broly flew toward him. Where his attacks before were too fast to even react to, now they were clear and appeared even sluggish. In almost excruciatingly slow detail, Goku observed the way Broly's fist pulled back for the impending punch, the saliva in the corners of his mouth, the roar buzzing in his ears.

With no prompting from Goku himself, his body reacted all on its own, ducking under this and many more attacks to come. Goku paid attention to the mad Saiyan for only a little while longer, making sure even his spiking energy wasn't closing the power gap any time soon. Once it became clear he couldn't, the focus shifted over to Ultra Instinct itself. Despite the heat that came from powering it up, the state on the inside was surprisingly relaxed. Even calmer than Super Saiyan Blue was. It reminded him of meditation, the hyper-awareness of everything around oneself but also a sort of... absence from everything all at the same time.

Pressed back to a nearby mountain from all the dodging, Goku's legs did their work for him, leaping from one protrusion to another while Broly pursued. Absently, Goku noted how bloody furious he'd become, forgetting he could even fly, clawing and jumping up the mountain like some crazed baboon. Most of his thoughts were on his ki, precisely where it came from. Becoming a Super Saiyan could be triggered by anger, and usually was the first time. But closer practice with it revealed there was a tingling sensation in the back, a sort of nerve bundle that, when discovered, could help trigger the transformation.

Super Saiyan God was different from it. There was no anger involved, and the power seemed to come from the center of the chest. Super Saiyan Blue was tapping into both of these ki centers, funneling the energy of God through the Super Saiyan back bundle, cooling off the aggression from the original form. As far as Goku could sense, this Ultra Instinct technique came from somewhere in his head. It was a faint difference, but in his mind's eye, he could see all this new power running through his entire body originating from there.

 _Guess it makes sense,_ he thought, blankly realizing Broly was firing ki blasts at him. _When Kefla socked me in the head, Ultra Instinct came rushin' outta me. I even smacked her attacks away without thinkin' too..._

Thinking about his attacks, Goku noticed one of Broly's beams zip past his tilted head and became curious. With as little thought as possible, he tried to deflect the attacks away. Even with the full Ultra Instinct unavailable to him, the power increase difference left him just a bit stunned. Just minutes ago, trying to survive a single one of these blasts would've been more than he could handle. Now, his hands almost lazily went in strange, oddly hypnotizing motions with each deflection. Broly's attacks were so useless, Goku actually felt nothing as he struck each one away with a chop.

_This ain't gonna work. Jiren's moves're what got me t'Ultra Instinct for real last time, Broly'll have to lots better than this._

Perceiving his opponent's strength, it still rose, but far more slowly, the initial rush of potential bursting out of him from Super Saiyan wasn't letting him leap across whole echelons of power. Thankfully, Kale and Broly were very similar, and that was all the information he needed to plan out his next move. While he focused some of his attention to swatting aside the blasts, Goku kept an eye out for a particularly timed one and waited patiently until his foot shot out. The kick sent Broly's blast right back to its owner, more specifically inside his mouth.

The gargantuan Saiyan gulped it down, his throat bulging like a frog's until he started coughing and gurgling out nasty, black smoke. It didn't stay in for much longer, not when Goku's elbow strike into Broly's chest knocked every bit out air from his lungs. Then, with no great fuss, Goku floated to his right side and with as much force as necessary to piss him off and not outright knock him out, crescent kicked Broly in the face and into the sky.

From the cliffs at the edge of the battlefield, Bulma, Vegeta, and Whis watched the whole thing and more as Goku and Broly engaged one another in the sky. For Bulma, this was much easier now as Whis conjured a pair of fancy, alien binoculars for her. Though the combatants still looked like blurs most of the time, it was easy enough to know where they approximately were, thanks to the booming noises and explosions.

"Man, Goku's new power is amazing," She commented, watching Broly completely fail to so much as touch him. "If he keeps this up, he'll win for sure!"

To her right, Vegeta's sour look was accompanied by a grumble about show-offs. Whis, meanwhile, chuckled. The second she heard it, a chill ran down her spine.

"W-Whats so funny?" She hesitantly asked, looking away from the fight.

"Goku can already win the fight, the power he's using currently is but a portion of what even the incomplete Ultra Instinct is capable of."

"B-But why then..." She paused and gulped, the answer becoming stupidly clear to her. "Oh, no..."

"Oh yes," Whis said. "In the Tournament of Power, Goku's usage of Ultra Instinct was always pressured, never allowing him a chance to even practice the form in more measured conditions. Now, however, the odds are far more in his favor. He can simply allow himself to remain within the state, let his mind and body both acclimate to it while Broly serves as a good sparring partner. For now, at any rate."

"... For now...?" She squeaked when another resounding detonation of ki brought her attention back to the fight.

In the skies, Goku made full use of the free space, using nothing but his raw speed and Ultra Instinct's evading power to dance around Broly. Attacking him from every possible angle, but most prominently at places that were liable to tick anyone off. An eye poke or two, a slap in the ear, a headbutt to the crotch. The big guy responded to everyone, attacking with even more power than before.

 _Still not on Jiren's level, though,..._ Goku thought, remembering the intensity of their blow trading. How relentless it was, not giving him even a second to think or act, propelling him even deeper into Ultra Instinct. Broly, as he was then, simply couldn't compare even to Goku's laid back power. _Looks like I'll hafta kick things up a notch!_

Accessing more of his Ultra Instinct power, Goku rushed forward, leaving an afterimage behind which Broly mistook for him. Then, he repeated this over and over again. In seconds, the giant Saiyan was surrounded by hundreds of after images, all executed with such speed they looked closer to actual clones. While Broly gaped at the small army surrounding him, Goku started the next part of the plan. As he zipped from one spot to another, still leaving more images, he opened fire on Broly with a continuous stream of smaller Kamehameha's.

He tried to swat them away, to counterattack, but Goku's barrage soon overwhelmed him. Each blast hit somewhere else, upside the head, across the back, in his exposed arms. Each one burned worse than the other. Eventually, all Broly could do was put his arms over his head and try to block out the pain. But it didn't stop, and he couldn't smash it away. He couldn't do anything but suffer it, like a weakling. It was just like before, the same kind of overwhelming pain that left him hurting all over... From the remote...

And as this single, coherent train of thought entered his mind, reminding him of things the anger made him forget about, he snapped all over again.

Goku's body sensed it well before he did, automatically blasting far away from Broly himself and breaking off the attack. The initial burst of new power reverberated with such speed and force, Goku even lost control of his own flight for a brief moment. Steadying himself on the ground, he looked up and stared at the sensation buzzing through his head like a busted radio noise. The swirling ki around Broly became so thick it almost looked black and not green. His chest piece exploded, and his muscles grew to even more absurd proportions. His blank eyes glowed red, and his hair turned green.

"So, this is his real power..." Goku muttered, feeling a wave of worry and excitement, overcome the cooling effect of Ultra Instinct on his mind. Out of all the people he'd gotten a chance to fight, it was among the most powerful ki's he'd ever felt. It was what Goku wanted and needed to take his training to the next level, and there was no way he'd pass it up. With a simple deep breath, he simmered down and focused on exerting as much of Ultra Instinct's power as he could.

Wordlessly, a pillar of blue ki surrounded him, piercing into the sky and through the thick, black clouds hanging overhead. Allowing himself a moment to look deeper within, Goku got confirmation of his earlier assessment, there was a source of power coming from his head. The release of his full-power was simultaneously overwhelming and barely noticeable.

In a challenge to Goku's release of ki, Broly roared and did one of his own, releasing a twisting whirlwind of green energy, pounding his chest and shouting all the while. Goku intensified his own output, without so much as making a sound. The two stood there, watching one another, a current of electricity forming around their competing energies. Then, they both charged forward.

The white flash from their collision was so powerful, Bulma yelped and tossed the binoculars away, rubbing her eyes. Or, she would have, if the shockwave hadn't nearly blown her from the cliffside. Luckily, Vegeta caught and held on to her tightly. Even if he too swayed from the shockwaves blasting through the wind.

"T-Thanks," She mumbled and snuggled close to his chest, shaking all over. From fear or Goku and Broly's attacks, she couldn't quite tell. Hesitantly, she looked back to the point they'd smashed into each in and felt her jaw hit the floor. The white collision didn't disappear. Instead, it seemed to surround the two of them, growing bigger and bigger with each passing second. Every attack they threw at each other caused the expansion, and every boom sounded like the beating of a giant heart, or a bomb waiting to go off.

"W-What the hell is that?!" Vegeta shouted over the chaos, shielding his eyes.

"That is an Annihilation Sphere," Whis shouted back, withstanding the ongoing disaster like it was nothing at all. "It's quite a rare phenomenon, you see, an accumulation of so much destructive power that it can destroy all life in an entire universe should it detonate!"

"T-The universe?!" Vegeta and Bulma blurted out together. "They're going to destroy the universe?!"

"I don't believe it will come to that," Whis shrugged. "Although, when Gods of Destruction, or those comparable in power clash, such devastation is to be expected."

The fact Whis decided then to conjure an energy ball around them didn't make them feel any better. Nor did anyone else on Earth or indeed across the universe. Men, women, and children panicked as the seas went wild, and the ground shook from under them. Animals panicked, migrating an entire season too early or even seeking shelter with their natural enemies. High above on his Lookout, the God of Earth trembled and feared for his planet, while another babysitting a little girl, couldn't decide if he was afraid or excited by what he sensed.

Broly and Goku didn't notice or care about any of this. Locked in an endless loop of exchanged punches, kicks, elbow and knee strikes, evasions, and blocks, nothing else existed for either of them. The former was at the height of his anger. He didn't understand or know that his actions could kill some of the only people left in the universe that cared about him. The latter was too busy immersing himself in a state beyond instinct.

With each moment, Goku felt a familiar sensation overtake him, a feeling of almost dream-like eyes wiping everything else away. Pain, excitement, stress, fear, none of it mattered, none of it existed anymore. There wasn't even the spot in his head where Ultra Instinct came from. For a while, there was absolutely nothing, and to a point, all of these things and more returned. Goku felt pain, he understood the danger of the power they'd created, his body didn't react to any of it. Just the fight.

Broly, who's vast speed was so inferior then he might as well have been frozen, threw another punch. Goku's hands caught the attack, and the rest of his body bent with such speed and force, Broly was tossed from the Annihilation Sphere and rammed into the ground before he could even begin to understand how it happened.

Goku took another calm breath and let his ki seep out of his body in a multidirectional bind. The same technique which he'd pinned Broly down with before was now magnified by the power of the completed Ultra Instinct. It's silvery light enveloped around the Annihilation Sphere, locking it into place so it couldn't detonate. Then, with a slow, steady motion, Goku brought his outstretched arms closer together, causing the Bind and Annihilation Sphere both to shrink the closer his palms got.

In seconds, the Sphere was little more than the size of a peanut, before Goku's clapped his palms together and annihilated it from existence.

He remained floating there, noting how their clash had blown away the black clouds. Overhead, the sun was setting, and the great heat of the lava had simmered down. Goku looked at his hands, the way they seemed to be more and less connected to him than ever before. Then, he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, and focusing on the ki running through his body. The origin point of Ultra Instinct was perfectly clear to him, how it worked, how it connected to the rest of his body. He'd never felt so in control of it. So outside its control.

He remained floating there, even as Broly burst from the rubble and charged at him. Goku didn't pay any attention, nor did he stop his meditative trance. He didn't need to. His body did all the work for him. It floated gently from Broly's overhead punch and positioned itself at the best point to take him down instantly. The back of the neck was a sensitive area for most fighters, and with enough force, even the strongest could get knocked down from a simple tap to it.

Broly was no different. The lightest tap of Goku's index finger sent an electrifying current of force running through every nerve in his body that Broly didn't even feel any pain whatsoever. He simply let out a single, hitched breath and fainted in-mid-air. Catching him by the end of the animal pelt, Goku gently lowered him to the ground. All without thinking about any of it.

Nor did have to think or stop his meditation when an insignificant, red ki blast suddenly tried to skewer him from behind. Goku's body traversed to the spot where Freeza hid in an instant, appearing in front of him. For this, he did decide to interrupt his meditation on Ultra Instinct, looking down at the beaten old creep snarling and barring his teeth.

"You really are a fool," Goku said, curling his lip. "But I guess I am too, fer thinkin' this time'd be different."

"Different...?" Freeza repeated, and then he laughed, hard. "What, did you believe our alliance in the Tournament of Power changed anything? That I would leave you be out of some sudden sense of friendship? From a changed heart?! Ha! Ridiculous!"

"Gotta agree with ya there. You an Lord Beerus an Vegeta. I keep forgetting how much of a scumbag you are. Not anymore, you've run outta chances, Freeza."

"Hmph, you say that now," He smiled, even as Goku noticed a few beads of sweat rolling down the side of his face. "But I won't stay down. You'll need me for something, to aid you in some foolishness of your own making or simply because you want me to be your perfect sparring partner."

"Not really," Goku shrugged. "Thanks t'you, we've got Broly. He's much stronger than you, and not a bad guy. A much better sparring partner than you'll ever be."

"Well then," Freeza said with fake ease, letting his hands fall to his sides. "It seems we've reached the end of-"

Before he could get on Goku's nerves any more than he already did, a punch to the face shut Freeza up permanently. His body, as expected, vanished over to Enma's, where Goku would pay a visit to later. To make sure Freeza got even more little hell angels visiting him from here on out. But that was for later, right then, while he still could, Goku closed his eyes and continued his meditation, and path to mastering Ultra Instinct.


End file.
